Having a child home from school, either due to illness or weather, has become the norm since Christmas. Today there’s a little bit of “normal” seeping back into life in the form of Haileigh. She’s the baby I watch while her mom is finishing high school. There is such peace in holding a baby in one’s arms.

Unfortunately she’s in need of breathing treatments, so I’ve learned how to do that this morning. She was very cooperative!
Also, unfortunately, my son is home with a slight fever and cold symptoms. Our daughter is recovering from mono so, I’m praying that he doesn’t have that. Even though it is primarily passed along via saliva, I read on Web MD that mucus also carries the virus to others. I’ve become a germaphobe! (sp?…not sure that one is in the dictionary yet!)

Anyway, it reminds me of the days of raising these little people and how thankful I am to have done that while I was younger.

Not much to say today. Just sending my thoughts out into the cosmos. Life can turn on a dime, reveal all sorts of inconsistencies, but as long as we persevere with one another in love, forgiving because we remember when we’ve needed forgiveness…life grows and blossoms like the flowers in spring.

Today I see sunshine in the midst of caring for those in need around me. I feel the sunshine coming from the hope within me as I emerge from my cocoon. The challenge of metamorphosis has been relentless…but it’s good in the end. I’m learning to fly.

There’s an old saying I learned as a teenager in youth group…
“Please be patient with me. God is not finished with me yet.” We all need that grace.

Yesterday morning my husband and I did something new and interesting…and filled with laughter! We “cyber” dated.

He took me to our local wifi restaurant, along with his laptop computer and our new family laptop computer and we “connected” over coffee and breakfast. I’d never done anything like that and he was kind enough to show me the ropes. (as a homemaker of 29 years I’m a little shy to try these things on my own the first time out)

Our teenage son even got in on the action by IMing me. I responded by saying, “Well hi son! I didn’t see you sitting there!” (groans from the audience…)

I love the play on word game, and I really enjoyed trying to juggle IMing and talking over the computer (literally) to my husband while attempting to consume coffee and grits (still have to eat soft food after the tooth extraction).

I sincerely hope everyone, reading this or not, had a chance to laugh as much as we did yesterday and to fall in love all over again over the computer (or wherever else one was playing)!

Not only am I recovering quite well from having two teeth pulled (ref. yesterday’s blog “Second Opinion”), but I also recovered my courage as the events of yesterday unfolded..thanks be to Jesus.

I’ve always been bothered by the notion that when people are saved from harm or spared pain, etc. that it’s an example of God’s faithfulness, which implies that when one must endure pain and hardship something is askew in the God/Human relationship. I know the Old Testament seems to read that way, but when one examines the subtext a different story unfolds.

As it happened to me in this situation, I was spared pain and given courage for anxiety. That was indeed a blessing. But had I endured pain and continued to wrestle with anxiety through the experience, I would still have found God faithful to me because I trust that all things work together for good when one’s heart is devoted to the Lord. (I have had more experience with the latter)

Sometimes praises arise from our hearts because we are elated by personal victory or just a good mood. Other times, like David so frequently writes in the Psalms, we bring the sacrifice of praise. This time, I am happy to say that I get to celebrate being delivered from something. Yea!

Last week I visited an oral surgeon who gave me very grave news…many teeth needed to come out. His office would get a health clearance from my doctor (I’m not in perfect health, unfortunately) and we’d make a treatment plan.

When my husband was advised by a co-worker to get a second opinion, I was a little put out. I hate going to the dentist and my mouth/face hurts so that I just want to get the stuff over with and feel better! But, something in me decided not to argue. (I can be quite stubborn….NO! right?)

As it turned out, the second oral surgeon gave us an entirely different perspective. It was quite a bit more conservative and sent us back to a dentist, which is where I should have started in the first place. (the insurance company had advised going straight to the surgeon because of the symptoms)

Now I am scheduled to endure facing down my deep fear, with my high blood pressure in tow, today. I took my two teenage boys to them for check ups yesterday and the people there are very kind and compassionate in the face of my irrational fear. They can help my anxiety with chemicals (i like chemicals…) and we’ll get through this, one visit at a time until my mouth is healed. You know though, I’d rather give birth without pain meds (and I’ve done that three times!) than do what I must do today. Even the exam the other day had my blood pressure up very very high. It was a bit scary. Anyone inclined to offer a prayer for me, I offer my thanks in advance.

I need to be cleaning house and doing laundry, but I’ve been glued to my on line distractions all morning. I used to have so much courage. I’ll keep the song by Rebecca St. James with me this afternoon…”Hold me Jesus …

1.5 hours later….

I’m not kidding. I was typing the last line when the phone rang. It was the dentist’s office wondering why I was not at my appointment. I had 2pm on my calendar but they had me at 11am. Long story short, I jumped up and drove just up the hill to their office, getting settled into my appointment before I even had time to worry, still holding the words of that song in my head and heart.

The exam went amazingly well (the grace of God is amazing and I believe that Jesus was holding me, just as I’d asked). I’m going back this afternoon at 4 to have 2 extractions done with nitrous and Valium to aid the process. I feel an assurance…blessed assurance…as I go about some chores.

The complete line from that song goes like this:

“Hold me Jesus, cause I’m shaking like a leaf. You have been my King of Glory. Won’t you be my Prince of Peace.”

It’s a play on words of sorts. I’m trying to schedule a podiatry appointment and coordinate it with oral surgery consultation. I’m in pain from head to foot.
I’m thankful for the support and patience given by my family. I also find that the pain keeps me mindful to pray for those suffering so much in different areas of the world right now.
Peace

The Preaching Biz always seemed like the family biz to me. My father and uncle are both preachers. I am too, in an unofficial capacity…ask any member of my household!

I actually have had the delight of delivering a sermon or two. Honestly I’m more comfortable sometimes talking to a crowd than an individual. Individuals want specific answers. I offer more thought provoking reflections or ideas. I guess that works for individuals as well. It just feels more awkward when I don’t know what to say and extemporaneous speech does not, for me, always equal wise counsel.

I suppose this category will include thoughts which may, at times, sound like sermons. Good ones, with humor…not those other kind. Prayerfully.

I’m an outside the box thinker, a radical believer in the love and divinity of Jesus as well as his humanity. My goodness! Has One Considered the amazing idea that God became man to get to know us better! That thought right there is so cool! And he treated women really decent, too. I love that guy!

Twice…not once, but twice, I had something brilliant to blog today……….hehehe
And both times the computer cut off. Hmmm.

I’ve really begun to enjoy this blogging venture. My world is expanding and I am becoming more than the sum of my parts. It might not really show yet…but I am.

My life has been small but valuable, to this point. I’ve been a homemaker by choice and blessed to be able to make that choice. I’ve had five wonderful children and one amazing step-daughter. (I still have them) Three children are adults and three are teens. The nest is beginning to empty.

Everything I am has been cultivated by experience and reading, observation and listening to life around me. I read about people who do things that I could see myself doing. Whether the resources exist for me to venture out that far in my remaining years, who knows. But there is much to dream and do… to love and to laugh and live each day with joy.

Right now I’m in great physical pain from dental work which is on the calendar and some wretched foot pain that has been the catalyst for my first purchase of expensive tennis shoes. At least they are hip new Sketchers Shape Ups! So I laugh in the face of pain and growing old! Ah ha ha ha ha!
And go to bed now with the aid of modern chemistry. Oh blessed slumber…to sleep, per chance to dream something I will actually remember!

Blessings to you who read this and those who don’t. And so it goes……..

Lately, for some inexplicable reason, I feel quite invisible. When I am noticed it too often feels as though I am one of those items someone has on a pantry shelf and takes out when they need to use what I have to offer.

Yes, a bit of pity for myself this moment. But really, it makes me resolve to treat others with greater awareness and responsiveness.

I don’t really believe that people set out with the intention of having that impact on those around them. It stems more from mindlessness and the pace of our egocentric world.

Oh heaven help us all to tune in to the least of these, to say the small kindness as they cross our mind and we cross someone’s path, to click “like” when someone posts a nice status on Facebook…….for crying out loud! Would that kill someone? It lets the status writer know that it makes a difference that they’re there. Otherwise what’s the point in all the “friends”. Someone I know referred lightly to perusing Facebook statuses as voyeuristic. We tend to read and watch the lives of others without getting involved at all. How sad.

Sorry. Got a bit over excited there. This is no great wise insight really. Just needed to send the thoughts into the greater world around me in hopes that someone finds me and I’m no longer invisible.